Sadly, I have yet to see Stephanie have chemistry with anyone and I really can't even put a finger on why. I like SH well enough. Maybe this guy will finally be the one she can spark on screen with. :shrug:

I think I can tell you why. The character (not the actress) has no depth. She barely has a developed backstory, despite being a legacy character with an unusual background chock full of opportunities for both internal and external conflicts. She has no career goals--her job at Titan seemed to be mostly about giving her a chance to be around Philip enough to develop the relationship, which is a shame, since her mother on the show, while a "good girl" character during her heyday on the show, managed to actually have a job that had meaning for the character and for the community well outside her relationship with the love of her life.

Stephanie needs a real job. A life outside Titan and Philip. It would have helped to keep her parents around, IMO, because of their backstory with both the Kiriakises and the Dimeras, but even with them gone, the writers could still put some effort into building and enriching the character. They just don't seem interested in doing that.

I was struck the other day by her reaction to Philip's (aborted) declaration that he'd kill EJ if he laid a hand on Stephanie. I'm pretty sure her father said something similar to her mother many times during their tortured courtship, and Kayla, the uber-good girl, never reacted so prissily. I think she kind of dug that a guy would love her enough to vow violence in protection of her. I would have thought Stephanie might have gotten a little of that from her mother, but I guess not.

I think the most obvious problem with Stephanie is that she's purely a character of opportunity. She doesn't have meaning or purpose in and of herself, only as a canvas on which to paint whatever story the writers are telling today. Need to throw her into close proximity with Philip? Let her intern at Titan, even though we don't know exactly what kind of job she's doing or why the job would interest her. Need her to fight with Philip? Let her suddenly become all prissy about violence, despite the fact that she was a daredevil racecar driver and her father was once Philip's father's hired thug and doesn't exactly shun violence even today.

How can you have chemistry with a character so insubstantial? And while I like Shelley, and I think she could actually do a great job with a well written character, she's too inexperienced an actress to overcome the flaws in the way her character is written.

Well. Ahem. I think I'll go back to lurking now.

:applause: I think it was very well said, and goes to why so many storylines fall flat under Dena. Feel free to come out of lurking anytime. :D